Ruminants, such as cattle and sheep, have the capacity to assimilate cellulose and cellulose byproducts from plant growth, which is not shared by unistomach creatures, such as man. Thus ruminants can digest and grow on organic plant material which provides little or no nurishment for other types of animals. There are some organic plant materials, however, which have a relatively low degree of digestability even to ruminants. These include such materials as ground corncobs, rice hulls, bagasse, wheat straw, oat straw, rice straw, and the trunk, branches, stems and leaves of woody plants such as trees and shrubs. Thus, a very large percent of the organic plant growth on the earth is not available for food material to livestock, such as cattle and sheep, because of the low digestability. The reason that such plant material is not digestable appears to be related to the amount and distribution of lignin content in these types of plant matter. Lignin is an amorphous polymeric material which binds the cellulose together to form the woody cell walls of plant material and in essence forms the cementing material between the cells. In plant material wherein the lignin cellulose bond is tenacious the cellulose cannot be attacked by the micro-organisms living in the stomachs of ruminants and thus the digestability of the material is reduced to a level wherein it will not support life and growth of ruminants.
The basic object of this invention is to provide a process of treating plant organic matter to increase the digestability thereof by ruminants.
More particularly, an object of this invention is to provide a process of treating plant organic matter including matter such as corncobs, rice hulls, bagasse, wheat straw, oat straw, rice straw, and the trunks, limbs, stems and leaves of trees and shrubs and other such similar organic plant matter to increase the digestability thereof by ruminants to the level wherein such material, after having been treated by the process, can function as a feed material for ruminant animals.
Another object of this invention is to provide a process for treating plant organic matter in an arrangement to break at least a portion of the lignin-cellulose bonds of the plant matter and to convert at least a portion of the cellulose molecules to saccharides and saccharide acids so as to increase the digestability of the plant material by ruminants.
These general objects as well as more specific objects of the invention will be fulfilled in the following description and claims, taken in conjunction with the attached drawing.